I was very excited to get to spend additional time with Kristine on a sort of extended birthday celebration, especially since I’d have her all to myself this time and we’d be eating some delicious food. Kristine was decked out in some celebratory sparkles from bow tie to cuffs to shoes.
I met Kristine at her office and then we walked to the restaurant, briefly stopping at a local wine maker in the West Loop for a very quick drink on the way. We had reservations at Smyth for right when they opened. There were already a couple tables already seated, but we were given the table closest to the kitchen which we definitely considered the best table in the restaurant. Already we could were picking up some savory aromas from the kitchen.
There were two wine pairing options – the Smyth pairing and the “Super Mega” pairing. We went with one of each so we could try all the wines.
The first beverage and was the pawpaw amazake poured into a teachip with a clear globe of ice. This was a nice fruity refreshing start which paired nicely with the oyster and apple gelee bite which was had the oyster delicately wrapped in quince “leather”.
The next two bites blew us away. First up was the quail egg, served in a very delicate little crunchy fried croustade. The quail egg was cured in walnut miso. Inside the croustade was fig honey and magnolia vinegar. The quail egg was topped with a bit of bbq onion. I’m sure there are more ingredients I missed, but it all resulted in a bite of bliss. This was soon followed by the guanciale donut with was really a little globe shaped pastry filled with pastry cream with the guanciale and apple and barley crisps perched on top. Delicious and savory. These were paired with Champagne. The interesting thing was that we found both the Champagne from each of the pairings had a very similar flavor (almost like siblings although these came from two different producers) to them which was interesting to compare and contrast.
The third course was dungeness crab & jackfruit. Living in SF, I love dungeness crab (and my sister love’s that I always mention it in my blog, lol) and I had recently read a headline about dungeness crab season in San Francisco was delayed until mid-November, so I was curious from where their crab was sourced. I asked our waitperson and he didn’t know offhand, but did go find out from the kitchen and came back and told us it was from Washington. I remember Kristine proclaiming how she had never had any jackfruit that tasted this good. The fruitness of the jackfruit paired very well with the crab, not overpowering it. Altogether, it made for yet another delicious bite.
Our fourth course as a sungold tomato & uni aguachile. This was an interesting take on aguachile and I certainly can’t complain about their interpretation. I love tomatoes and the uni was from Maine, which I don’t think I’ve ever had before.
The fifth was the matsutake chawanmushi. I love chawanmushi and this was their interpretation of the dish which was very differently presented. Normally, it’d be in a little cup and would essentially be a custard, but this was plated and was less firm than a custard. The fresh matsutake lent just bit of that earthy fungal-ness (is that word?).
Next came the caviar & almond dish. I’ve had a lot of different caviar presentations, but this was unique both by the presentation by “sticking” to the top of the bowl as well as the pairing with almond, no so thick as a sauce, but more of a liquid. With the Mega wine pairing, this was paired with a Chateau de Beaucastel Rousanne which was delicious just on it’s own the way a Rhone white can be.
After that came the avocado and pistachio dish. It was a delicate (with a lot of microtweezer work on top) tart? muffin? atop a bed of cream and avocado oil.
For our eighth course, we were provided Maine lobster and sikil pak. This was surprisingly (to me) paired with a 1er Cru Morey Saint-Denis Burgundy (I always think whites), but the the added depth of the sikil pak seemed to work with the wine. Either way, it was delicious with the lobster being so fresh.
Next up was the brook trout and blade kelp. The trout perfectly cooked (poached?) with just a small array of kelp to top served with a rich creamy sauce.
Our tenth course and last savory course was elysian fields lamb and malted milk bread. I don’t think I’ve ever had lamb from Elysian Fields, but it was perfectly cooked and perfectly delicious. I didn’t get a great picture of the milk bread, but I did get a good picture of the lamb heart sausage butter, lol.
Our first dessert was cranberry and coconut. We were both surprised by the “ice” which we expected to be some something sweet like caramelized sugar, but it was in fact really an ice.
The aged banana had some walnut caramel, cocoa nibs
Kristine did also receive a special dessert in celebration of her birthday prior to our final dessert course. This was a vanilla mousse with lemon curd cream, jasmine frosting.
Our final desserts were a beautiful sunflower tart and couple pinecone truffles nestled in a bowl of actual pinecones.
Service was very attentive and just the right amount of interactivity, enough to keep it from feeling sterile and with just a bit more to make it feel that much more personal. Food was spectacular, worth of 3-stars. Wines were very good and some standout differentiation between the two pairings (although a surprising number of shared pours with some of the pairings). Ambiance was perfect, esp. with our seating right by the kitchen. It was definitely one of the best dining experiences we’ve had and Kristine even said it was the top for her (and probably top 5 for me). And on top of all that, the best part was being able to spend such quality time with Kristine and to extend the celebration of her birthday.
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